What is it about Bradley that leads to breakout performances from Creighton guards? After last night’s shooting display from Josh Jones, its four years in a row that the Jays have had a guard put up a breakthrough game against the Braves.
In 2008, Cavel Witter — who, up until that point, had a relatively pedestrian career as a Jay — had 42 points in a double-overtime win in Omaha. The 42 points were twice his previous career high, and came after the sophomore was held scoreless in 16 minutes of a 28-point defeat in Peoria to Bradley just two weeks earlier. Witter hit 13-of-20 shots from the floor, including 4-of-6 from three-point range, while also making 12-of-13 at the line, to score a career-high and Qwest Center Omaha record 42 points. He scored 18 of his points in the overtime periods and also had seven assists, four steals and three rebounds in a career-high 34 minutes. Witter would follow it up with 15 points and eight assists in a four-point MVC Tourney victory over the same Braves team six days later.
In 2009, freshman Antoine Young scored in double figures for the first time in his career, getting 13 points on 3-5 from the floor and 2-2 from behind the arc in an early January win in Peoria. His offensive breakout came at an opportune time, as MVC Player of the Year Booker Woodfox missed the game with an ankle injury.
Last year, Josh Jones had a career-high 13 points in 21 minutes of action in the Jays first game without the suspended P’Allen Stinnett. Jones’ three pointer in the opening minutes was his first ever basket in an MVC game, and he would go on to make 3-6 from downtown in the Jays 73-68 road victory. Jones would go on to string together a solid collection of offensive games following that Bradley outburst, scoring in double figures in two of the next three games and helped ease the offensive transition in the post-P’Allen world.
Following that stretch, he once again struggled to find his offensive stroke, scoring in double figures just once more the rest of the season — coincidentally, in the Jays quarterfinal loss to Bradley in the MVC Tournament.
Through 19 games this season, Jones had not scored more than six points in any game, accomplishing that feat twice. But with the Bradley Braves on the schedule, it was time for one of the Jays’ guards to have an unexpected game…and once again, it was Jones who had the big night.
Jones began his scoring with a three-pointer from the corner with 11:33 to play in the first stanza to give Creighton a 13-10 lead. He then made a three from 30+ feet out as the shot clock buzzer sounded, shrugging like Michael Jordan in the 1992 NBA Finals as he ran back up court. Greg McDermott could only smile and yell a joke back at Jones as he retreated back on defense.
That second three made it 16-12 Jays, and when he cashed in a third three-pointer at the 8:27 mark, they ran the lead out to 23-12. The energetic Jones’ barrage of threes had served to both fire up his teammates and get the crowd on its feet, no small task given the way the team had lost its previous two games and the way the ghastly winter weather outside had kept many fans from attending. In less than three minutes, he’d equaled his entire three point output from the previous 19 games this season combined.
A few minutes later, he’d surpass that total with his fourth three pointer of the half, as the Jays made 7-for-12 from long range in building their largest lead of the season at 25. Their lead at the half? 49-24, a stunning offensive display from a generally offensively challenged team.
As encouraging as the first half was, the second half was, like so many second halves before it, u-g-l-y ugly. 12 turnovers went a long way toward Bradley attempting — ATTEMPTING — twice as many shots as the Jays attempted, and making twice as many. No, really, that’s a real stat. The Braves were 18-35 from the field in the second half, while Creighton was 9-18. Oh boy. All told, Bradley outscored the Jays 44-32 after halftime, slicing the 25-point lead in half and twice threatening to cut it to single-digits in last 90 seconds of the game. The outcome was never seriously in doubt after halftime but still…you’d like to finish a little stronger than that.
Wednesday night’s first half was a peek at this team’s ceiling. Granted, the opponent was the 0-7 Bradley Braves, but the Jays did almost everything to near perfection. On offense, their motion was outstanding, their passing was marvelous, their ball movement was fantastic, and they had 12 assists on 18 made baskets. Defensively, they completely shut down the leading scorer in the MVC in Andrew Warren, holding him to just four points on 1-6 shooting. They outrebounded them 18-13, they hustled, they did all the little things that lead to big wins. And they led 49-24 because of it.
By the same token, Wednesday’s second half was a peek at this team’s reality. After 20 minutes of great basketball, they turned in 10 minutes of so-so basketball and 10 minutes of absolutely horrible basketball, allowing a team that was dead to rights to climb back into it. Its the same song, different verse, that we saw against Wichita State and Missouri State (and even BYU, Iowa State, and perhaps even Northwestern) — play well enough to win for 30 minutes, then play a horrible stretch for 10 minutes that costs you the game. After holding Warren to four points in the first half, they allowed him to explode for 18 in the second half — going 8-13 from the floor and 2-3 from three-point range. Along with the defense disappearing, the offense stopped doing all of the things that got them the lead in the first place, namely, all the things I mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Without a 25-point buffer, I shudder at the thought of what might have happened.
Even so, its a win, and when you get into late January and February, a win is a win is a win. But this team is running out of time to figure out a way to string 40 minutes together — against the likes of Bradley, 30 great minutes is enough for a win. As we saw the previous two weeks, playing only 30 minutes of great basketball gets you a loss against elite competition. And of course, its those elite teams they’re going to have to beat to get to where they want to be.
